Kaan Man

It’s Don Cheadle’s house. The new Showtime series “House of Lies,” has already won the veteran stage and screen actor a Golden Globe for Best Comedy Actor. Cheadle, 48, is in his second season of “House of Lies,” a show set in the ruthless world of corporate downsizing. The show’s TV-Mature warning which includes “adult content, graphic language, nudity, and violence” doesn’t quite do the show justice, as sex, drugs, alcohol and plenty of shady corporate doings dominate the show.

Cheadle who broke out as the character Mouse Alexander in the movie “Devil in a Blue Dress” with Denzel Washington, has also appeared in the “Ocean’s Eleven” films with Brad Pitt and George Clooney, “Boogie Nights” with Mark Wahlberg and Julianne Moore and “Out of Sight” with Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. He and Washington teamed up again for last year’s “Flight.” Though Cheadle appeared in two short-lived TV shows, “House of Lies” is his first lead TV role.

On “House of Lies,” Cheadle is Marty Kaan, the leader of a group of management consultants who can manage anything but their own personal lives. The show’s very first episode featured Cheadle in bed with his drug-addict ex-wife and navigating his son’s desire to star in the female lead role in a school play. Actor Glynn Turman has a recurring role as Cheadle’s psychoanalyst father, who provides child care and unsolicited advice while Kaan travels the country making deals. The series, like “The Bernie Mac” show, uses the unusual effect of actors speaking directly to the camera. The 12-episode series runs half an hour and airs Sunday nights at 10 p.m. on Showtime. Watch a full episode of “House of Lies.” WARNING: ADULT CONTENT